The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1887-11-26
FRENCH EXECUTIONS.
The History, sureness aud Advantages Of
tho GulllOtine.

tho GulllOtines
The beheading of Pranzini gives what
the French call actualite to the subject
of executions. Let us see how an
assassin in this country pays his debt
to society. France is, with the excep-
ton of Italy, the sole European country
that decapitates its murderers. Ger
many uses the AK only in case of high
treason; Spain aud Portugal garrote
their assassins; Switzerland and Bel
gium have practically abolished the
death penalty.
Without going into scientific dis
cussion as to the advantage of behead-
ing over the more general--and, ac-
cording to the popular idea, more in
famous-mode of hanging, the guillo-
tine has the precious advantage of be-
ing sure every time; there are no cords
to break or stretch. and no miscalcula-
ton is ever made in the "drop."
1t is curious and not generally
known fact that the first guillotine was
constructed, after designs of recorder
ut Strasburg, by certain Tobias
Schmitz, manufacturer of what is to-
day considered another instrument of
torture-the piano! Until 1872 the
guillotine had not been much improved.
1t resembled the scaffold that is used
in America. Alright of steps led up to
the platform, which was surrounded
by railing. The idea was to "let
every body see." Tho guillotine was
called by criminals the Abbaye de
Monte-a- Regret, signifying that it was
an abbey which separated them from
the rest of the world and that they
mounted it's steps with regret. Helm
dereich, who was the headsman in
1872, had greatly improved. the instru-
ment. Instead of a monster machine
that it took three or four hours to put
together, Heindereich reduced the gull
lotine to its simplest expression and
such as it is to-day; two upright iron
beams containing two grooves on each
inner side, one for the ''lunette," or
socket, and the other for the trapezi-
form knife; a perpendicular swinging
plank rising to the level of the culprit' .
breast, against which he is thrown for
ward between the two beams; ut the
right of this plank. and leaning on to a
willow basket, painted black and partly
filled with bran, is board over which
they slide the body after decapitation;
to the left, two pals of carbonated
water; in front, a sort of zinc tub. into
which the head falls. The guillotine
was formerly painted in red. and the
knife so exposed that it was the first
object seen by the condemned man on
leaving the prison gate. Now it is of q
pale yellow color. and the knife is con.
cealed.
The guillotine is erected ON the part
of the Rue de In Roquette, which forms
q small square between the two prisons
fronting on it. One is the Grand Ro.
auette, used for criminals condemned
to long terms of imprisonment or ban,
ishment, and who remain here until
they are sent elsewhere or shipped tc
New Caledonia. The other is Littl,
Roquette, where minors are confined
The distance from the prison door tt
the guillotine is not more than twenty
steps. The executions take place a
the dawn of day, and as far as any
thing being seen by the crowd they are
practically private. Only the journal
lists and u few privileged ones are adj
mitted on the square. At two o'clocl
in the morning the cavalry and infant
ry of tho Paris Municipal Guard, one
hundred each, fifty cavalry gendarmel
and about five hundred policemen ap
pear. Tho soldiers push back the mol
SO far as to leave the entire squar
clear. Shortly afterward the eIecu
tioner arrives In . large red wagon
which contains the guillotine. The in
strument is packed in a number o
cases. each piece being numbered
The aids put It together, tie work no
lasting over half IN hour When tn
} knife is in place the headsinan tries II
edge on q small bundle Of straw, t
see that it slides easily and cuts well
just before the moment OF executiO
the gendarmes arrange themselves /
horseshoe form around the guile
tine. and two rows Of policemen forr
Q line from the prison door to the II
/ strument. 1t Is through this line tbs
the condemned passes. .'-Payis Letter I